Mr. Paul Reid:

I will give the Deputy a few examples. He is absolutely correct. The ultimate measure of this is, and should be, what is the public's experience when they come for their care. We should always remind ourselves of that in any reform, one must come from the customers' side, in our case, the patients' side.

I will give the Deputy some specific examples of how we believe the situation has improved. Waiting lists are an issue that is still far too big. I gave some examples earlier. Thankfully, more older persons are receiving care in their homes because of increased hours. It is not as many as we would like but more people are receiving this care. More people are getting their chronic disease and illness managed away from an acute hospital setting. More people, including some 140,000 last year, are going to their GP and getting access to diagnostics without having to be referred to an emergency department. We have put in place more beds. It has been impacted by Covid. Through our National Ambulance Service and various reforms, people have been treated outside of emergency departments. It should not be the default to bring them to an emergency department. We have more multidisciplinary teams caring for people in the community.

On the waiting lists, there are four key strands to our plan to make this better. We had a focused short-term plan in December that reduced the waiting list by 5% in a short period. The first strand is to increase our capacity in the public system, for which we have the investment to do that; second, to utilise the private capacity in the meantime; third, to provide extra funding for the NTPF for certain procedures; and as important is the radical reform of how we deliver care across a range of specialties. We are looking at 37 specialties to see if patient needs can be addressed without having to go to a senior consultant. Are there other roles and responsibilities whereby people can come forward for their care and get it? I reassure the Deputy that will be the ultimate difference from the patients' experience - by radically changing how we are delivering the care.